Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
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Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
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Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
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A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
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Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
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Thursday, October 27. 2005

The Story of the Ford Edsel

Watching Ford and GM struggling today brings to mind the story of the Ford Edsel. The Edsel story is a case study in how not to develop and introduce a new product. That's not exactly the problem that the big American motor companies have today - it's bad contracts and their turning themselves into de-facto finance and healthcare corporations - but they have not been wise for many years. Detroit is suffering: Click here: RealClearPolitics - Commentary - Public Sector Unions Still Living in a Dream World by Tom Bray

From a piece by A. Young:

The early 1950s were a euphoric period for automakers. In 1955 Americans bought a record 7,169,908 new cars. This auto-buying frenzy was just one aspect of the postwar economy that Vance Packard described in The Status Seekers, published in 1959 1 In Packard's view, automobiles evolved from mere transportation vehicles just after World War II to symbols of middle-class affluence in the first half of the 1950s. The V-8 engine reigned supreme and horsepower was the watchword. In this heady market atmosphere Ford Motor Company conceived a new car that they hoped would help the company surpass General Motors in overall market share.

Read entire.

Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 06:36 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

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